It is no secret that Asia has emerged as the world’s most dynamic media market, where internet, broadband and mobile usage are exploding and the region’s newspapers - the world’s largest - continue to grow alongside digital media.
This growth has now been quantified in World Press Trends, Asian Edition, the first regional edition of the annual global World Press Trends survey published by the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA).
The Asian edition of World Press Trends, released this week to coincide with Publish Asia 2009, being held in Chennai, India, shows that newspaper circulation in Asia grew +3.44 per cent in 2008 over the previous year, despite the global downturn, and has grown +17.52 per cent over the past five years.
The Asian edition, which includes reports on 25 countries and a wealth of summaries that provide a detailed picture of the newspaper market in the region, shows:
- India and China are the world leaders in the newspaper industry, in terms of size. The two countries account for 45 of the world’s 100 largest newspapers. India has more daily newspapers than any other country and leads in paid-for daily circulation, surpassing China for the first time in 2008.
- The number of Asian internet users rose 23.51 per cent last year from a year earlier, to more than 704 million. Over five years, internet usage jumped 116 per cent. There are more broadband subscribers in Asia than any other region - nearly 158 million. The number of broadband subscribers grew 23.33 per cent last year and 145 per cent over the past five years.
That compares with 123 million broadband subscribers in Europe (up 7.4 per cent last year), 97.5 million broadband subscribers in North America (+11 per cent), 19 million in South American (+36 per cent), 6 million in Australia and Oceania (+6.6 per cent) and 2.5 million in Africa (+28 per cent).
Asia also leads the world in the number of mobile cellular subscriptions - nearly 2 billion. The number of subscribers rose by one-quarter in 2008 and by 163 per cent from 2004.
That compares with 894 million in Europe (+7 per cent in 2008), 425 million in North America (+7 per cent), 365 million in Africa (+33 per cent), 328 million in South America (+21 per cent), and 28 million in Australia and Oceania (+5 per cent).
Paid-for newspaper circulation rose in eight countries in which figures were available last year: Afghanistan (+11.11 per cent), Bangladesh (+7.14 per cent), Burma (+13.51 per cent), Cambodia (+9.09 per cent), India (+8.26 per cent), Indonesia (+6.86 per cent), Nepal (+2.94 per cent), and Thailand (+0.68 per cent).
Circulation fell in eight countries and territories: Brunei (-8.89 per cent), Hong Kong (-2.44 per cent), Korea (-1.04 per cent), Malaysia (-4.92 per cent), Singapore (-1.48 per cent), Sri Lanka (-2 per cent), Taiwan (-5 per cent), and Vietnam (-0.71 per cent). Circulation remained stable in North Korea, Laos, Macau, Maldives, Philippines and East Timor. No figures were available for 2008 in Bhutan, China and Pakistan. Japan was excluded from the regional summaries, which focus on the developing markets in the region.
Over five years, paid-for circulation rose in 15 countries and territories: Afghanistan (+50 per cent), Bangladesh (+36.36 per cent), Brunei (+64 per cent), Cambodia (+20 per cent), Indian (+45.5 per cent), Indonesia (+12 per cent), Laos (+8.7 per cent), Macau (+5.6 per cent), Malaysia (+71.74 per cent), Maldives (+75 per cent), Nepal (+27.27 per cent), Singapore (+18.69 per cent), Thailand (+7.3 per cent), East Timor (+50 per cent), and Vietnam (+1.45 per cent).
Circulation over five years fell in six countries and territories: Burma (-10.64 per cent), Hong Kong (-10.31 per cent), Korea (-3.28 per cent), Philippines (-0.79 per cent), Sri Lanka (-2 per cent), and Taiwan (-15.56 per cent). Circulation was stable in North Korea. No figures were available for Bhutan, China, and Pakistan.
World Press Trends, Asian edition, is compiled from data already published in World Press Trends 2009 (http://www.wan-press.org/worldpresstrends ). The data has been gathered and processed with the assistance of a wide variety of contributors, ranging from newspaper associations to individual analysts. It also contains a wealth of data from ZenithOptimedia, which provides forecasts based on current trends.
